Military

Further Reading

BMP-3 Fighting Vehicle

The BMP-3 [BMP = Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhota - Infantry Fighting Vehicle], which represents a totally different design concept from BMP-1/2, is a light tank that can hold a squad of infantry. It has a 100mm main gun that fires HE to demolish buildings, can fire long-range ATGMs through its barrel, and a 30mm autocannon and a medium machine gun as a single unit in the turret. The innovative BMP-3 armament suite has been subjected to criticism in the Russian military, which has focused on deficiencies in the barrel-fired ATGM. The performance obtained from the 500 horsepower engine powering this 18 ton of vehicle compares favorably to the American Bradley, which has an engine of similar power for a 33 ton of vehicle. The BMP-3, first seen in public during a parade in Moscow in 1990, was built by Kurganmashzavod, developer and manufacturer of the BMP-2 infantry combat vehicle. The hull of the BMP-3 resembles the BMD Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicle, with a new turret in the center of the vehicle. The troop compartment at the rear of the hull is accessed via a pair of doors in the hull rear. The BMP-3 is fully amphibious, propelled in water by two water-jets mounted at the rear of the hull.

A French SNPE ERA kit and others are available for use on the BMP-3. However, during dismounted troop movement ERA would be a hazard. Thus, passive armor is more likely and ERA application is doubtful. Other options are spall liners and air conditioning. Russian AG-17 30-mm automatic grenade launcher modification is available for use on BMP-3. Russian KBP offers a drop-in one-man turret called Kliver, with a stabilized 2A72 30-mm gun, a 4 Kornet ATGM launcher, thermal sights, and improved fire control system. The Namut thermal gunner's sight is available for use on BMP-3. This uses the French Athos thermal camera. Namut sight has 3x and 10x channels with a night acquisition range of 2,600 meters. Stowed rounds and ATGMs can be passed from the passenger compartment to the gunner for hand loading. This includes ATGMs. The "HEF" (or "HE-Shrapnel") round can be employed in indirect fire mode with air burst to 7,000 m.

An order for the delivery of BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles that the Russian Defense Ministry suspended three years earlier over inferior quality will be completed, a defense industry official said 24 September 2013. The vehicles, manufactured in 2010 at the Kurganmashzavod plant, “were criticized by the Defense Ministry” when they were first made, Oleg Bochkarev, deputy head of the governmental Military Industrial Commission, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The vehicle has since been modernized and given “a large number of various modifications,” he said, adding that the product is in high demand on foreign markets. “This equipment will function for a long time yet,” Bochkarev said. First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Sukhorukov said last year that Kurganmashzavod had been fined 3 billion rubles ($90 million) over its failure to deliver BMP-3s on time and meet the required quality standards.

The Defense Ministry and Concern "Tractor plants" have signed a contract for the supply of several hundred infantry fighting vehicles BMP-3, he told Tass on Tuesday vice president and co-owner of the concern Albert Bakova. "We have signed a three-year contract with the Ministry of Defence on the BMP-3. The number in the hundreds of cars," - a spokesman said. According to him, in the course of serial production of BMP-3 armored vehicles in the design has been made more than 1.5 thousand.

Tanks also clarified that "Kurgan", included in the "Tractor Plants", will continue to carry out the order for the supply of military BMP-3 to complete the development work on the platform "Kurganets-25" and the serial production of armored infantry fighting vehicles of the new generation on its base.

BMP-3K: Command variant, with electronic round fuze system for 100-mm gun and a steel hull. Bow MGs are removed. Added radios are R-159, R-143 and R-174. The 1PN71 thermal sight (3.7x/11.5x) has an acquisition range against tanks of 3.0 km. The 1D14 laser rangefinder (73x and 18x sights) has a day light only acquisition range of 10.0 km. The 1PN61 passive image intensifier night sight uses a laser illuminator. In the passive mode, the Generation II (7x) sight has a night acquisition range of 1.2-1.5 km. Using the active laser pulse illuminator, the acquisition range can be extended. Tall Mike Radar has an operating band I (9.0 GHz), and detection ranges: 3.0 km against personnel, 12.0 against moving vehicles.